VÉRZŐ TÁJAINK: A ROZSDA POÉTIKÁJA KORTÁRS FRANCIA KRITIKAI FIKCIÓKBAN
BLEEDING LANDSCAPES: THE POETICS OF RUST IN CONTEMPORARY FRENCH CRITICAL FICTION

Author(s): Krisztina Horváth
Subject(s): French Literature
Published by: Scientia Kiadó
Keywords: the poetics of rust; critical fiction; François Bon;
Summary/Abstract: In this paper, I examine the significance and meaning of rust motifs in the so-called “critical fiction” segment of contemporary French literature, and more specifically in the novels of François Bon. Without following through the appearances of rust in literary history exhaustively, some previous instances are briefly mentioned, since rust is one of the most frequently used images of the fragility and transience of the man-made world. In extreme contemporary literature, the poetics of rust expresses the nostalgia for a past industrial society in strange configurations, without remaining within the narrow confines of realistic presentation. Despite its apparent stasis, rust always presupposes an earlier pre-rust time horizon, that of the brand new state of the man-made object, machinery, or bridge. Recently, François Bon published a study of László Moholy-Nagy’s photo series of the transporter bridge of the Old Port of Marseille, blown up in 1944. The pedestal of the transporter bridge, as a rusting memento, from time to time awakens the desire in the French to reconstruct this peak of engineering and industrial achievement.

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